In the spirit of the suttas;
Excellent, friends, excellent. You have taught wisely. My mind is calmed
and made whole.
In searching for "asava" I found some helpful material. The "Access to
Insight" glossary reads thus:

asava: Mental effluent, pollutant, or fermentation. Four qualities --
sensuality, views, becoming, and ignorance -- that "flow out" of the mind
and create the flood of the round of death and rebirth.

Here is an excellent discussion of addiction and asava by S N Goenka
that also uses the word "kamasava":
http://www.vri.dhamma.org/newsletters/nl9901.html

Here is another clear discussion of asava, whose termination Goenka
understands as basic to liberation:
http://www.vri.dhamma.org/newsletters/nl9808.html

Another simple, modern and practical explanation from Goenka:
"Whenever any negativity arises in the mind there starts a secretion of
an unpleasant flow of biochemical substances in the blood vessels. This
helps to increase the negativity, which in turn increases the flow of
biochemicals. Thus the vicious circle continues to multiply the misery. In
the ancient language of India this flow of unpleasant biochemicals was
called asava or asrava. Buddha found the technique of vipassana, through
which one can become anasavo or anasrava � that is, free from the misery
of this biochemical flow of negativity." (Perhaps his teacher was an
"alchemist" of some kind.) Source:
http://ignca.nic.in/cd_09014.htm
This talk is titled "Vipassana and the Art of Peaceful Living",
certainly a timely topic.
Well, my intuition concerning this word's importance seems to have been
accurate. Thanks again for all your responses.
Gratefully,
Wayne


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